Islamisms, or diverse
representations of political Islam, have become very difficult to ignore and
even more difficult to categorize and explain satisfactorily. This is
particularly the case when addressing a western audience, which is unfamiliar
not only with the multifaceted aspects of Islam, but also with the crucial role
Islamic faith plays, in the everyday lives of Muslim people.

Willy Claes, the Secretary
General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), gave Western
misperceptions and misrepresentations of Islam and Islamisms a new twist.

Few developments in the post-Cold
War era have captured public attention, stirred primal fears, stoked the fires
of racism, and stymied critical thinking quite so thoroughly as the rise of
fundamentalism. Although it is a force to be reckoned with in virtually every
area of public endeavour, the rise of fundamentalism presents a very specific,
and somewhat unique, challenge to the emerging field of reproductive health and
rights.

The aim of
this paper is to explore some contradictory implications of nationalist projects
in post-colonial societies. It examines the extent to which elements of national
identity and cultural difference are articulated as forms of control over women
and which infringe upon their rights as enfranchised
citizens.

Despite the extensive literature on nationalism, there are
relatively few systematic attempts to analyse women's integration into
nationalist projects. The little there is conveys seemingly contradictory
messages.

Is it a lapse into impressionism to ‘lend great
importance to the weight of Islam’ in considering the roots of the oppression of
Arab women? Despite all the social transformations that have occurred in the
Arab world since the era of the caliphs, secularisation has yet to take hold in
nearly all the Arab countries. Legislation dealing with marriage, divorce, and
the status of women (inferior in all cases) is still based on, or directly
inspired by, Koranic law in all the Arabic-Islamic states. What role is played
by Islam, what is its influence, and how is it used?

“That was an army of Black men
standing in front of me...They loved the message and they loved the
Messenger,”Minister Louis Farrakhan on the
Million Man March(Arizona Republic, 1996:
6)

“No march,
movement or agenda that defines manhood in the narrowest terms and seeks to make
women lesser partners...can be considered a positive step,” Angela Davis on the Million Man
March(Pooley, E
“To The Beat of His Drum” Time, Vol 143, No.

The custom of arranged marriages is
generally endorsed by South Asian communities of all religious affiliations. The
system may have some advantages if due regard is given to the wishes and
preferences of the intended spouses, and if dowry considerations do not turn the
exercise into a commercial transaction — both very big “ifs.” It is the ugly
side of arranged marriages that has made headlines in the British and American
press several times in recent years.

Women are the hidden
factor in the politics of ethnicity in the Muslim communities of Northern
England. The broader context to the apparent silence of women lies in a matrix
of patriarchy and imperial experience, as well as the impact of Orientalism on
contemporary European culture. In other words, there is a culturally embedded
assumption that women should know their place, colonial peoples should know
their place, and oriental women are too ethereal to have a place at all.